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Thursday, January 6, 2011

White House Changes Set To Begin - President Obama met yesterday with William Daley who is expected to be named Chief of Staff. David Plouffe will be changing places with David Axelrod, as he becomes Senior Adviser and Axelrod takes over the reelection campaign effort. Gene Sperling will most likely take the place of Larry Summers as Economic Adviser and a replacement for White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs is expected to be named soon. You can read more here.

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Repeal of Health Care First Up for GOP - the 112th Congress is now official and new speaker of the house John Boehner (R-Ohio) has scheduled a vote next Wednesday to repeal the recently passed health care law. The NY Times has more here.

The repeal is expected to easily pass the House with as many as 40 Democrats likely to support. In the Senate, the job will be more difficult, but some Democrats, such as Senator Claire McCaskill (La.) have signaled they may support repeal. However, it is unlikely to receive a vote in the Senate, making it a wasted effort on the part of Republicans.

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GOP Passes New House Rules - interestingly, the new rules which were easily passed in the new House by a strictly partisan vote, will allow the national debt to increase. One example is the upcoming vote on repeal of the health care bill. There will be no requirement to show how to make up the estimated 140 billion in savings over 10 years the health care bill provides. The Washington Post has more here.

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Latest Poll by Gallup Highlights Displeasure with Partisan Politics - Democrats and Republicans dropped in voter identification and Independents are now the largest political identification in the country.

Democrats are now at 31% down 5 points from two years ago and Republicans are only at 29%. Independents now make up 38% of the public. Gallup.com has more here.

An interesting trend, and one that would show the possibility of a strong third political party to surface once again in American politics.

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